Balancing the checkbook of my day.

• 30 minute test commute on light traffic day
• Got lost in Northern Virginia
• Made three balls-ups at the till (none fatal)
• Helped lots of customers find running shoes they can love
• Served two customers concurrently for the first time (and sold both great shoes, including a pair of the Awesome Creations)
• Ate breakfast at 7am, lunch at 5pm, nothing in between
• Wondered why my prospective employer didn't call
• Decided I don't answer e-mails where the sender can't be bothered with transitive verbs (let alone any content of substance)
• Mark made me a cup of tea just the way I like it when I came home.

All in all, not the greatest day, but survivable.

Today's favorite quote

Matt to a truck full of women: "The extra five inches makes a difference."

New favorite quote

Ed to Doug as they're walking into the men's room at the Indiana travel plaza.

"I got ya behind, Doug."

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Running on empty

I'm continuing my job as amateur Ironman cheerleader, traveling 15 hours to Madison, Wisconsin to cheer on my friend Joey and fellow Team Zers at Ironman Wisconsin aka Ironman Moo (for those in NZ, WI is as well known for its cows as NZ is for its sheep. In fact, I'm surprised that IMNZ isn't known as IM Baa.).

Five of us piled into an aircraft carrier known as a Nissan Armada and a truck with five bikes and a tandem for Doug, a blind triathlete who's coming out to bike part of the course and sign up for next year.

I've volunteered to 'captain' him so I'll get the chance to see the course too. Apparently the course is really rolling, so the uphills will be a bear hauling 350lbs of flesh and steel, but the downhills will be a blast. Doug assures me that the front brakes are brand new. Phew.

We made it to the western side of Ohio on the first day - about 8 hours of driving and 500+ miles. The drive was pretty easy and I loved cruising along in the aircraft carrier. The only issue was all the harassment from my fellow travellers. I appear to have broken the driver's side window too. So now Ed has to climb out of the aircraft carrier (complete with rope ladder and gangplank) to pay the tolls.

Oh - there was one drama. This puppy gets about 13 mpg and we made the poor decision to not stop at the convenient gas station on the turnpike because we wanted to eat too. "Oh," said Ed, "the computer will tell us when we have 30 miles to go, plus we have 20 miles after it reads empty." So we figured we were good. Unfortunately, Ed's a big fat liar and we watched the 'miles to empty' indicator count down to 20 then mysteriously flatline. "Oh," said Ed, "we don't need to worry until the fuel guage needle is on E." Hmmm. We then watched the needle hit E and head further south. By then we had the display showing fuel usage and I was trying to keep the guage up above 20mph and we tucked in behind a big truck to pick up a draft. When we pulled into the gas station, a 25 gallon tank took 26 gallons.

This morning's visual, which unfortunately I didn't get on camera, was Sue's bike secured to her truckbed by a pair of handcuffs. Maybe tomorrow.

We are now in Indiana (tried to get a pic of the welcome sign to show Indy, but faile abismally). I think Wisconsin is only two states to go.

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Ironman spirit

I don't think I can yet adequately describe yesterday's Ironman Louisville.

Very briefly, my friend and training partner Teaka was having a great race until the back half of the bike when she suffered four flat tires (rumor is that some asshole tacked the course but it may also have been something wrog with her wheel - we'll find out more later), putting her at least an hour behind time.

Add that to the 33 minutes lost because of the time trial swim start - time that isn't added to the end, and she only made the bike cutoff by 40 seconds. The emotion of seeing her roll in when we thought all was lost was some of the highest highs I've ever experienced.

But she'd redlined to make the cutoff, pushing her heart and body to it's athletic limits just to get in on time so had nothing left for the run. She made a respectable time for the first loop, but I always knew that a 5:40 marathon would be tough after everything she'd been through and she didn't make the cutoff for the first loop of the run.

They took her chip. Her official race was over. But because Teaka's heart is as big as the moon, she set out to finish the marathon. Her amazing friends waited at the finish line and her amazing husband borrowed a bike from an amazing stranger and cycled out to meet her. She finally crossed her finish line at about 1:15 in the morning - nearly 18 hours after starting her race. She was crying, we were crying. A race official ran to a truck to bring her a medal and finisher's cap (which I hadn't expected since the sweep vehicle hadn't been behind her and so she was now so unofficial that she may as well not have existed) and all the workers stopped to clap and cheer her in.

I never ever would have though that anything could cap the drama of the final two minutes of IMLP, but when it's your friend hurting and pushing through out there? Indescribable.

A 23 hour day yesterday with five hours of hard yakka catching athletes at the end (and many mote stories there!), 3.5 hours of sleep and now we're heading home on a 10-11 hour trip.

Holy cow thus Ironman thing is equally addictive and gutting at the same time.

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The neverending State

I think that West Virginia is about as frickin' wide as New Jersey is long. And no cinnabon for relief.

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Another Ironman roadtrip

Wooooohooooooo!!!! Off to Louisville, Kentucky (which evidently is pretty much due west of here rather than south which I'd expected) to cheer on Teaka and Chris and Andy and several Team Z teammates in Ironman Louisville. Generally the August weather in Ky is horrifying but te forecast for Sunday is looking mild and relatively cool. Everything is crossed for a nice day for the athletes.

I'm fortunate to have two friends of Teaka's (who you'll remember from my Ironman drove all the way to Lake Placid to cheer like a crazy woman and lent me her tritop. I'm hoping that that top will bring her luck on Sunday.) to drive me out there.

I wonder if there will be cinnabon en route?

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